Porsche – The Berlin Spectatorhttps://berlinspectator.com
This is Berlin.Sat, 22 Jun 2019 17:27:09 +0000en-US
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.1https://berlinspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/cropped-logo-berlin-spectator-023-SQUARE-512-2-32x32.jpgPorsche – The Berlin Spectatorhttps://berlinspectator.com
3232159402125Porsche Taycan: Dummy Exhaust Pipes Includedhttps://berlinspectator.com/2019/06/22/porsche-taycan-dummy-exhaust-pipes-included/
Sat, 22 Jun 2019 17:20:37 +0000https://berlinspectator.com/?p=2051Forget the 600 HP it puts on the asphalt or its maximum speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). What counts is the range. Porsche says the latter is more than 500 km (310 miles). This is what makes the Taycan a strong contender for the best electric vehicle on the market.]]>

Yes, the world loves them all. German vehicles are everywhere because they tend to be technically advanced, and some are excellent status symbols. They drive Audi A6s in Manila, S-Classes in Montréal, and 5-series BMWs in Moscow. The Chinese market has exceeded all expectations for Mercedes Benz and others.

After WWII, the Volkswagen Beetle’s loud clatter was heard all over Europe, before it spread to America too. In Puebla (Mexico) and Taubaté (Brazil) they built hundreds of thousands of Beetles. Towards the end of the 1970-s, they slowly switched to the Golf and the VW Brasilia. And there were always some wrinkled guys with deep pockets who chose to drive 911s.

What Porsche is putting on the roads now is very different and nothing less than sensational. Even before the world’s most important car trade fair, the IAA in Frankfurt, opens its gates in fall, the first Porsche Taycan will be handed over to its first buyer. The fully electric vehicle will outperform the strongest Tesla. And it will have the ‘Made in Germany’ label.

In spite of the fact that the Taycan is being propelled by electric motors, some prototypes Porsche is testing do have exhaust pipes in order to fool reporters. The manufacturer from Stuttgart recently tested two Taycans of this kind in Norway’s ice and snow. What a great trick. But reporter Simon Alvaréz did not fall for that one anyway, when he took good shots of them.

The Taycan will not be mistaken for anything else. Photo source: Porsche

Porsche calls its e-model a “tribute to tomorrow”, and it seems they are not exaggerating, not even a bit. The Taycan will accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.5 seconds. It will reach 200 km/h (124 mph) faster than average cars need to get to 100. And all of this without blowing any CO2 or dangerous Diesel particles into the air.

Forget the 600 HP it puts on the asphalt or its maximum speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). What counts is the range. Porsche says the latter is more than 500 km (310 miles). This is what makes the Taycan a strong contender for the best electric vehicle on the market. The manufacturer says, the batteries can be loaded to a level of 80 percent within 15 minutes.

So Tesla has a good network of loading stations in the United States? Maybe. But so does Porsche. The Germans signed a deal with Electrify America which gives Taycan owners the right to load their luxury vehicles pretty much anywhere. “Coast-to-coast travel” was therefore possible, the German manufacturer announced. Who would not want to get his or her kicks on Route 66 with something this elegant, sexy and green?

The Taycan is a two-in-one vehicle. It is a sports car, but also a luxury sedan with ample room for four people, in spite of being only 130 centimeters (51 inches) high. A delivery van is the only thing the Taycan is not.

Its stunning, futuristic and impressive look speaks for itself. One of its many unique characteristics is the fact that it does not have rear view mirrors, for a better drag coefficient. Instead, cameras keep an eye of what is going on behind the Taycan. Nobody will overtake it anyway.

Taycan drivers will not want to get out of their cars. Photo source: Porsche

The engineers kept the car as light as possible by using anything they could find, including carbon and aluminium. Also they made sure it has a very low center of gravity, which will come in handy in tight curves. In short: They thought of it all.

One single issue still needs to be resolved. It’s the buying procedure. Porsche charges people 2,500 Euro (2,834 U.S. Dollars or 2,188 GBP) for a place on their Taycan waiting list. Some 20,000 people have already paid. The only thing they will get? Phone calls and messages.

Porsche will keep on telling them how much longer they have to wait. Furthermore, a waiting list place is no guarantee for a Taycan. This is the only aspect which seems a little weird.

According to several German-language media, 90,000 Euro (102,019 U.S. Dollars or 78,776 GBP) is the expected starting price. But for a fully loaded Taycan with all options, they buyer will have to put rather high stacks of Euro bills on the table, more than double the entry price.

Porsche has invested a huge amount of money into new production facilities and employed an extra 1,200 workers. At first they hoped to sell 20,000 units per year. Because of the big hype around the Taycan, the managers in Stuttgart are even more optimistic now. They believe 40,000 Taycans per year will find their owners.

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]]>2051Germany: Porsche Scraps All Diesel Modelshttps://berlinspectator.com/2018/09/23/germany-porsche-scraps-all-diesel-models/
Sun, 23 Sep 2018 05:04:46 +0000http://berlinspectator.com/?p=172Porsche did not build Diesel engines itself, but got them next door, from a convenient store called Volkswagen. To Porsche purists this step was a sacrilege. On the other hand it made a lot of sense to offer the Cayenne, Porsche's first SUV, with a Diesel engine, at that moment.]]>

When Porsche offered its first vehicles with Diesel engines, the Nazis were in power. Dictator Adolf Hitler himself suggested the production of a ‘Volks-Traktor’, meaning an affordable tractor for small and mid-sized farms. As a result, the German Labor Front instructed Porsche to do so.

It happened. Because of the war, only prototypes of different models with one, two, three and four cylinders were produced, at first. After the war, Hitler’s idea was implemented. The production of these Porsche Diesel tractors ended in the 1960-s.

From that moment onward, Porsche was perceived as an exclusive manufacturer of sports cars, since that is what the company had indeed become. From 1948 to 1965, the Porsche 356 with its legendary design was built. At first, Porsches basically were Volkswagens with a sporty body shell. But that would soon change.

In 1964, the 911 followed. It quickly became the incarnation of the sports car, and still is today. Apart from the 911, which has been built in many generations, the 914, 924, 944, 928 and other models were offered. But none of them ever replaced the 911 as the main Porsche, and the measure of all things.

In the 1970-s, 80-s, 90-s and in the early years of the new millennium, anyone who would have predicted that Porsche would offer its Cayenne and Panamera models with Diesel engines would probably have been sent to a madhouse. Porsche and Diesel was about as compatible as wild geese and shoe polish.

But in 2009, it happened anyway. This time, Porsche did not build Diesel engines itself, but got them next door, from a convenient store called Volkswagen. To Porsche purists this step was a sacrilege. On the other hand it made a lot of sense to offer the Cayenne, Porsche’s first SUV, with a Diesel engine, at that moment.

The Dieselgate scandal triggered by Volkswagen and other manufacturers of more conventional cars, got Porsche into trouble as well, especially in the United States of America. When that mess hit the fan, Porsche announced an end its Diesel sales in North America in 2015.

Then, in February of 2018, the company decided to get out of the Diesel production elsewhere as well. That decision is now being implemented. The Porsche Diesel is dead, thanks to the scandal, which rocked the German auto industry, and still is.

The issue was not just Dieselgate itself. But, because of the scandal, Diesel models recently lost their value a lot faster than before. Porsche’s reputation took a hit. Therefore, the issue had to be resolved once and for all. Au revoir, Porsche Diesel.

“In future, there won’t be any Porsche Diesel”, the company’s chairman Oliver Blume told the German-language publication ‘Bild am Sonntag’ for today’s edition. He conceded the Diesel crisis had caused a lot of trouble.

Blume told the weekly, Porsche would now “concentrate on things we are very good at”, which was building “emotional, high-output combustion engine models” along with hybrids, which combine combustion and electric engines. From 2019, Porsche intends to fight Tesla, the American pioneer of high-value and powerful electric cars with big ranges. Yes, the first pure electric Porsches are only a year away.

Porsche vehicles are about beauty, timeless design, performance and sound. In order to improve the latter, or make it more sporty, the company’s Diesel models had a so-called ’emotionalizing feature’, which made the engine sound deeper and more powerful. But the program would automatically switch off while the vehicles were connected to test stations, in order to decrease the emissions at that moment, according to ‘Bild am Sonntag’.

This morning, no Diesel vehicles were offered on Porsche’s website anymore. An attempt to virtually put together a Diesel model failed. The Diesel propulsion option is already gone. Porsche is the first German car maker to take this step.